Events

The legal profession's only conference specifically dedicated to the area of pro bono legal services.

Ottawa, Ontario
September 28 to 30, 2016

Envisioning Equal Justice Summit
(Vancouver, April 2013)

At the Envisioning Equal Justice Summit, held in Vancouver, participants from across the country shared their views on the greatest barriers to improving access to justice.

"Most people don't even realize that we have a problem – it's an invisible issue. Everyone knows they'll get sick someday, but most people don't realize they'll have legal problems someday, so they don't worry about it, they don't think about it, don't spend any time on it. So it's invisible and there's no political pressure to make it better."

The state of access to justice in Canada is "abysmal," say people who have studied the problem, with profound inequalities in quality of justice depending on income levels.

The CBA launched its Envisioning Equal Justice initiative in August of 2012 to look at the problem and more importantly, start developing ways to balance the scales.

At the 2013 CBA Legal Conference in Saskatoon the Access to Justice Committee released "Reaching Equal Justice: An Invitation to Envision and Act." The full position paper is now available. We hope you will take the time to read it and give us your comments and feedback. Join our national effort by writing us at equaljustice@cba.org.